WILLIAM WILLIAM BLAKE BLAKE'S Edited by Geoff r«yKeynea WRITINGS Edited by G.E. BENTLEY.Jr. K^>^ VOLUME I Engraved and Etched Writing* OXFORD At the Clarendon Press WILLIAM WILLIAM BLAKE BLAKE'S WRITINGS ^ Edited by G.E. BENTLEY.Jr. VOLUME I Engraved and Etched Writing. rj|i fj|i up r.gi f^i i'ft i\|> i-p tft i\|i ||i ji ^i OXFORD At the Clarendon Press Newt) Revbcd Bdtfari WIUJAM BLAKE WILLIAM BLAKE'S WRITINGS Edited by G. E. BENTLEY.Jr. VOLUME I Engraved and Etched Wntingt tin Dkwtd v EWman Coownmurv U HaiuM Bfaon f^ry»yry«yryi-yi»y>Tyiy,-y^pjy Nr%fc tawed Rfltfah At the Clarendon Press WILLIAM lh< < «4n)*|.- h«ir. rat Pn«t>d WILLIAM BLAKE BLAKE'S WRITINGS G. E. BENTL.EY.Jr. g§55N VOLL'Mr I Engr.««d and Ft<h<d Wmingi Edited b> Dw*JV Erdm At I he Clarendon Press ^^y AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY 65 «b3u^^ VOLUME 17 NUMBER I SUMMER 1983 BLAKE AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY SUMMER 1983 CONTRIBUTORS ROBERT ALTER is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. His two most recent books are The Art of Biblical Narrative (Basic Books, 1981) and Motives for Fiction, which will be published in 1984 by Harvard University Press. SHELLEY M. BENNETT, Ph.D. in An History from UCLA AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY 65 (1977), has published on aspects of English art, in particular VOLUME 17 NUMBER 1 SUMMER 1983 eighteenth-century book illustration. She is currently As• sistant Curator of the Henry E. Huntington Art Gallery. CONTENTS ELIZABETH B. BENTLEY wrote her review at the Bod• leian Library. The proofreading was done in Shanghai, where she is teaching at Fudan and Tongji Universities. Normally, 4 Redefining the Texts of Blake (another temporary report) she teaches and resides in Toronto. by David V. Erdman G. E. BENTLEY, JR., sometime of the universities of Chi• MINUTE PARTICULARS cago, Toronto, Algiers and Poona, is currently Fulbright Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Lit• 16 Charles Parr Burney as a Blake Collector by G. E. Bent- erature of Fudan University, Shanghai, Peoples Republic of ley, Jr. China, where he lives in luxury (maid-service, personal in• 16 An Emendation in "The Chimney Sweeper" of Innocence terpreter, transportation) and teaches Blake. by Alexander S. Gourlay V. A. DE LUCA is Professor of English at the University of 18 A Minute Particular in Blake's Songs of Innocence, Copy Toronto. His article, "The Changing Order of Plates in Je• O by Theresa M. Kelley rusalem, Chapter II," appeared in the Spring 1983 issue of Blake. REVIEWS DAVID ERDMAN is very hopeful he's found a publisher 20 Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, for the Four Zoas facsimile with commentary on the designs, reviewed by Robert Alter by Professor Magno and himself. 22 William L. Pressly, The Life and Art of James Barry, ALEXANDER S. GOURLAY is an instructor at the College reviewed by Shelley M. Bennett of Wooster (Ohio). He is writing a dissertation on The Book 24 Essick and Labelle, eds., Flaxman's Illustrations to Homer, ofThel and Visions of the Daughters of Albion and is co-author reviewed by Janet Warner (with John E. Grant) of an essay on Blake and Reynolds forthcoming in the Bulletin of Research in the Humanities. 25 Blake, a play written and directed by Grant Hehir, reviewed by Michael J. Tolley NELSON HILTON'S Literal Imagination: Blake's Vision of 26 James King and Charles Ryskamp, eds., The Letters and Words has just been published by the University of California Prose Writings of William Cowper Vol. II: Letters 1782- Press. 1876, reviewed by Donald H. Reiman THERESA M. KELLEY, Associate Professor of English at 30 Davis Grubb, Ancient Lights, reviewed by Nelson Hilton the University of Texas at San Antonio, is the author of articles 32 Warren Stevenson, The Myth of the Golden Age in English on Wordsworth, romantic figuration, eighteenth-century Romantic Poetry, reviewed by V. A. De Luca iconography and the sister arts. She is completing a book on Wordsworth's aesthetics as an archeology of the mind. 32 Geoffrey Keynes, Kt., and Peter Davidson, eds., A Watch of Nightingales, reviewed by G. E. Bentley, Jr. DONALD H. REIMAN'S volumes VII and VIII of Shelley 36 Nancy Willard, A Visit to William Blake's Inn, Poems for and His Circle wend their way through several stages of proof Innocent and Experienced Travelers, reviewed by Elizabeth toward publication in 1984, while he also shepherds to press the first dozen volumes of Manuscripts of the Younger Romantics, B. Bentley of which he is General Editor. In this series Garland Pub- © 1983 by Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley SUMMER 1983 BLAKE AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY lishing will issue in facsimile, with full scholarly apparatus, important literary manuscripts of Byron, Shelley, Keats, and INFORMATION their circles. MICHAEL J. TOLLEY is currently Chairman of the De• Editorial Assistants in charge: Marcy Erickson, Susan partment of English at the University of Adelaide, thus add• Corban, Univ. of New Mexico. Editorial Assistants: ing further delays to his continuing work on William Blake's Peter Chase, Leslie Donovan, Barbara Guth, Letty Designs to Edward Young's Night Thoughts and Blake's use of Rutledge Univ. of New Mexico. the Bible: an annotated checklist. He is, however, reviewing Tannenbaum for SiR and preparing an article on Blake's (as Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly is published under the he maintains) "To the Nightingale." sponsorship of the Department of English, University of JANET WARNER is Associate Professor of English at Glen- New Mexico. don College, York University, Toronto. Subscriptions are $15.00 for 1 year, 1 volume (4 issues). Special rates for individuals, $12.00 for 1 year surface mail subscriptions. Air mail subscriptions are $10.00 EDITORS more than surface mail subscriptions. U.S. currency or international money order if possible. Make checks Editors: Morris Eaves, Univ. of New Mexico, and Morton payable to Blake I An Illustrated Quarterly. Address all D. Paley, Univ. of Calif, Berkeley. subscription orders and related communications to Mar• cy Erickson, Blake, Dept. of English, Univ. of New Bibliographer: Thomas L. Minnick, Ohio State Univ. Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. Review Editor: Nelson Hilton, Univ. of Georgia, Athens. Some back issues are available. Address Marcy Erickson for a list of issues and prices. Associate Editor for Great Britain: Frances A. Carey, Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Drawings, Manuscripts are welcome. Send two copies, typed and British Museum. documented according to the forms suggested in the MLA Style Sheet, 2nd. ed., to either of the editors: Production Office: Morris Eaves, Department of English, Morris Eaves, Dept. of English, Univ. of New Mexico, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM 87131, Albuquerque, NM 87131; Morton D. Paley, Dept. of Telephone 505/277-3103. English, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Morton D. Paley, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. International Serial Number is 0006-4 5 3x. Blake I An Il• Thomas L. Minnick, University College, Ohio State lustrated Quarterly is indexed in the Modern Language University, 1050 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH 43210. Association's International Bibliography, the Modern Nelson Hilton, Department of English, University of Humanities Research Association's Annual Bibliography Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. of English Language and Literature, English Language Frances A. Carey, Department of Prints and Drawings Notes' annual Romantic Bibliography, ARTbibliog- British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WClB raphies MODERN, American Humanities Index, and 3DG, England. the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. BLAKE AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY SUMMER 1983 Redefining the Texts of Blake (another temporary report) DAVID V ERDMAN Thirteen years ago I submitted "A Temporary Report on nition of the committees of textual scholars who watched Texts of Blake" to the Damon Festschrift.1 Wondering and assisted the labor —judicially the CSE (MLA) who ap• how perfectly or imperfectly the "texts" which Blake had proved the procedures and format; critically the four etched, left in manuscript, or submitted to printers were scholars who helped check the text against originals or via represented in the available and forthcoming editions of film and facsimile: Robert Essick, John E. Grant, Mary Blake and in the Concordance of 1968 prepared by a Lynn Johnson Grant, and E. B. Murray. The present team often Blake scholars, I made a survey of the "partic• report is not quite exhaustive (dealing rarely with punc• ular passages" that remained "incompletely transcribed or tuation) and is intended primarily to enable users of any not certainly established." Since that time the informal of the texts collated to find quickly what differences ap• collaboration of editors and other scholars in a "web of pear in C. Explanations of changes in C will be found in mutual communication of reports and queries and photo• its textual notes, but certain critical passages are discussed stats" has continued, and the number of uncertain pas• briefly in this report. (Changes made in the second and sages has diminished. Many cruxes remain, however, and third printings of E are not cited.) Points where B ques• some of the "certainties" of 1969 have been questioned. tions readings in E are attended to in the textual notes of And the hope for technological advances that would C but if puzzling also noted here. reduce the "illegibles" of palimpsest (chiefly in The Four The fact that text and notes have been completely Zoas) has risen high, only to sink again. reset for C (and many of the notes rewritten) will mean The texts collated for this new report are four: that some errors have crept in.